Saturday, September 29, 2012

Supernatural Season 4 Review

Castiel! Castiel! I’ll be over here happy dancing and
celebrating. Castiel! Castiel! What? I’ve got to actually write a review and
not just fanpoodle Castiel? Ah well, the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can
return to Castiel love.

This season was a major boost on what was already a
really good show. Angels and Demons and the 66 seals – it took they already
epic feel of Supernatural and ratcheted it up to all knew levels. This wasn’t
just lives on the balance, fighting to save themselves and save as many
innocents in the process. This is a fight between Heaven and Hell to try and
keep Lucifer himself imprisoned. Lillith, the big bad demon from last season,
is battling to free Lucifer by breaking the 66 seals on his prison. On the
other side we have the angels fighting to keep Lucifer boxed up. Sam and Dean
are naturally on the side of the angels, especially since Castiel is the one
who pulled Dean out of Hell.

But it’s not so simplistic as that. Not least of which
because the angels are pretty unpleasant (except Castiel, who is awesome),
rigidly following orders of the command without any consideration of nuance or
shades of grey. Through Anna, the fallen angel, we see that doubt is considered
a great crime, that disobedience is punishable by death and that the angels
don’t even commune with god and have no idea what he truly wants. Sam and Dean
clash with the rigid structure and the draconian orders, and certainly with
their wiliness to sacrifice innocent people “for the greater good.”

From there it becomes even murkier, with angels endorsing
torture, angels fighting angels and Uriel killing angels who don’t support him
in pushing for the apocalypse. It looks like a fringe group of angels and
quickly becomes clear that the most powerful angels are completely behind
breaking the seals and setting the apocalypse going. They want the war because
they’re sure they will win – which leads to Castiel’s considerable character
development in a very short time.

And, of course, the ending has a twist beyond the angels being on the
pro-apocalypse team. Ruby, who had spent all of last season finally and
completely convincing me she was a good demon – and I was cynical all through
that season and most of this one, but I was convinced. Turns out she was
playing the long game all along, corrupting Sam, getting him on side to kill
Lillith – and in doing so freeing Lucifer. It was one of those moments where
you stare at the screen in brief shock – extremely well done. And Dean stabbing
her afterwards.

Because of all of this epic, the seasons seemed to be
more focused than the previous seasons. After all, when one is fighting to
prevent Lucifer being released, deviations from that seem like distractions.
Despite that there are several episodes that deviate though some still fit –
such as Dean travelling back in time to fill in some of the history behind his
family and revealing yet more of Azazel’s devilish plotting. But others seem to
be more gimmicky without much meta purpose – like the Oktoberfest horror film
shapeshifter. That’s the only episode I didn’t enjoy though and others either
added backstory to the Winchesters (such as the ghost bully at Sam’s old
school), had other lessons (like Sam and Dean suddenly living corporate lives
to be taught a lesson by Angel Zacharia) or were just great fun (like Dean with
the demonic fear virus). And, again, like in previous seasons even when we have
these deviations from the main plot there are still threads of character growth
even if not the meta plot. I’m still torn as to whether Chuck and his books
about Supernatural are a fun little gimmick or a step too far in the shattering
of the 4th wall.

If I have one complaint about the characterisation it’s
that with Ruby’s nifty knife, they now have a method of reliably killing demons
pretty easily, especially since most the demons they meet seem to be not overly
more dangerous than humans (lower lever demons, presumably – because we also
have demons like Alistair that are mighty as ever) they seem to have forgotten
how to exorcise them and try to save their hosts.

And there is more emotional conflict and development that
Supernatural does so well – balancing necessary emotional impact while not
derailing the plot into pits of wailing and angst. Everyone – from Sam to Dean
to the angels – is concerned with Sam’s demonic powers and drinking demon
blood, especially as it leads to his addiction. But at the same time they’re
conflicted by how it may be their only way to defeat Lillith and stop Lucifer
being released – there’s a lot of question on the subject of “ends justifying
the means”. Of course, this conflict also puts a rift between Sam and Dean that’s
interesting to see played out since it’s really well done – especially with
Bobby putting in his input (I love Bobby).

But the star of the emotional impact has to go to Dean
and his experiences in Hell. After 30 years of constant torture, he broke and
agreed to torture others. The portrayal of both the suffering he endured and
the guilt he now suffers from is extremely well done and developed over the
course of the series. It also adds an extra layer to the horror of the angels
asking Dean to torture Alistair for them. Well acted, well maintained, well
developed and really well portrayed.

And with all that wonderful praise I now have to return
to my old complaint about the inclusion on this programme.

On race – we have a semi-regular POC with Uriel – a Black
man. And like every other Black man on this show except Rufus, he takes an
instant dislike to the Winchesters and is a thorn in their side. Just like
Gordon the hunter, just like Henrickson the FBI agent. And just like both of
them he ends up dead as well. C’mon there’s a really blatant pattern forming
here. Other than that it’s largely victims and tokens (Black Maid and Chinese
restaurant owner, for example). And we’ve had monsters refer to prejudice
against them as “racist” which was ridiculously unnecessary – especially from a
demon and a ghoul

On women - we have Pamela, the psychic. Who is sassy,
cool and fun – and the first time we see her she gets blinded seeing Castiel’s
true form. She repeatedly says she doesn’t want to get involved but they drag
her back in and she ends up stabbed to death. And we have Ruby. Now I do like
the Ruby storyline, I was impressed. But following on Bela from last season and
the continued disappearance of Ellen and Jo, it leaves the regular female
characters either sacrificial victims or cunning manipulators who can’t be
trusted. And they all die anyway.

On sexuality – gay jokes, gay jokes, gay jokes. That’s
about it – and can I say how tired I am of erased shows still using homophobia
for humour? And I know everyone is kind of excited by the slash fan nod in episode
with the Supernatural book series written by Chuck, but to me it feels a bit
like the Bromance
in Teen Wolf. Writers are throwing bones to slash fandom but failing to
include actual GBLT people – and that’s a problem, especially with people in
fandom calling Supernatural a pro-gay show on the strength of it.

And there’s another problem with regular characters. As
may have been guessed, I love Castiel. Castiel is awesome, he’s a brilliant
character and brings a lot ot the show, a definite up tick on an already great
series. And Bobby – Bobby is just perfect in so many ways, as a father figure,
as a mentor, as the cranky old wise man and with a lot of humanity and realness
to him. Both regular characters add a lot to the show and definitely improve
things.

But in a show already completely and overwhelmingly
dominated by straight, white, male characters they add 2 more regular straight
white male characters. I love them, I really do, but it highlights the
completely lack of inclusion that the cast of this show is so homogenous.

I love this show I really do – I can happily sit and
watch episodes back to back, I’m even tempted to re-watch some (especially ones
with Castiel in them). It’s funny, it’s exciting, it’s epic, it’s dramatic, it
has a deeply engaging storyline, lots of conflict, some wonderfully endearing
characters and some truly excellent acting. But why oh why does it have to fail
so at inclusion?